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Teachers, Librarians and Authors: Let’s Work Together To Make More Author Visits Happen by Polly Holyoke

After I received The Call and sold my first children’s book, I was ready to head right out the door and start doing school visits. I’d been a middle school teacher for many years, and I knew there was nothing more magical than an enthusiastic author sharing with students the joy he or she takes in creating stories. I couldn’t wait to share my tales of getting kissed by a dolphin, learning oceanography, and eating sea urchins to research my Neptune books.

I was dismayed when many of the authors I asked about school visits shook their heads and told me dolefully that funds for author visits were drying up. Yet this past year, I’ve been fortunate enough to visit eighty different schools, and every one of those schools paid me.

So, how did I do it? Well, I do have a teaching background, and I lucked out big…